What summertime/nature-y Montessori Activities do you do?

[b_light]

Just collecting ideas

[Shaki]

DD(3.5 years old) and I take walks around the neighborhood and she collects things and we look at them through her magnifying glass.

[b_light]

Originally Posted by Shaki

DD(3.5 years old) and I take walks around the neighborhood and she collects things and we look at them through her magnifying glass.

Simple, I like it!!

[BCFD]

We do something similar. I saw this on a Mama blog somewhere and stole the idea. You take a cardboard egg carton and paint each section a different color and then walk around the block and find something of every color.

yellow - dandelion
green - grass
black - rock
brown - stick
red - flower petal

etc....

Then you can come back and maybe incorporate a lesson about each item found.

ETA: Last year I made a small little garden to grow a few fruits and veggies in. I take the kids to the nursery and let them pick out plants or seeds and then we plant them, nurture them, watch them grow, and then eat 'em up - yum!

[nkm1968]

I work during M-F, so DD2 goes to a fabulous Montessori camp (described as "kinderhostel") where she takes 4 classes for 6 weeks...last year it was clay, puppet making, "magic spoons cooking", and mini-musical, who knows what she'll choose this year....and DD1 (age 16) is a CIT at that camp. In the evenings and on weekends we'll do lots of bicycling, visiting older relatives and cooking dinner for them, checking out the dozens of cool Cleveland ethnic festivals, going to our many beaches, and messing around our neighborhood. Later in the summer DD1 and my father are going to Ireland to participate in an Irish music workshop, and DD2 and I are headed to Phoenix to welcome our newest lil' cousin "Bridey" (due July 16th, so I bought tickets for the 22nd in hopes of being a fairy god-doula and getting my newborn fix).

[Mama Shifra]

My local library used to have a book The Vacations & Weekends Learning Guide: Ideas and Activities to Help Children Learn Throughout the Year by Barbara Bailey Kelley and Toni M. Tomacci (ISBN #0139401229) that was Montessori based.

[Miss Information]

Originally Posted by BCFD

We do something similar. I saw this on a Mama blog somewhere and stole the idea. You take a cardboard egg carton and paint each section a different color and then walk around the block and find something of every color.

yellow - dandelion
green - grass
black - rock
brown - stick
red - flower petal

etc....

Then you can come back and maybe incorporate a lesson about each item found.

ETA: Last year I made a small little garden to grow a few fruits and veggies in. I take the kids to the nursery and let them pick out plants or seeds and then we plant them, nurture them, watch them grow, and then eat 'em up - yum!

I think this is the blog you are thinking about.

http://coastalgirl.typepad.com/coast...ature-box.html

We went on a color walk and a shape scavenger hunt

I've printed out the pictures and was planning on making a color matching game with the paint chips I collected.

[Lillianna]

Depending on the age, when my dd was little, we would examine leaves, rocks, spiders. Walk. Smell and breathe.
As she grew older we would do lots of "practical life" outdoors such as washing, gardening, raking and harvesting. We read outdoors in the hamock.
Now we do sometimes little nature books (leaves, birds, flowers) where she draws a picture (either from life or from a photo) and she writes the name underneath.
At summer camp, the children love to take their work out to the picnic tables on the patio. We also have a garden and do alot of activities around the flowers...flower arranging, flower pressing, planting seeds, drying flowers and herbs, using pressed flowers in collage as well as the nature themed language activities.

Here is a link to a wonderful book with some more nature activities:
http://www.embracingthechild.org/Booknature_cornell.htm